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The United States is at a monumental juncture. Insecurity, inequality, and violence characterize much of contemporary life. Activists and scholars frequently turn to law for solutions, but law so often fails to provide adequate tools to challenge the travails of the contemporary situation, such as the indignity of hunger, the strain of illness, or the horror of state violence. Indeed, law often facilitates and sometimes creates the problems facing traditional and emerging outgroups, as well as substantial sectors of traditionally privileged ingroups. Yet possibility remains in law. Grounded in the lessons of multiple generations of past social justice activism and critical theory, LatCrit will mark its twentieth anniversary by convening critical thinkers pursuing the goal of creating a legal order where equal justice for all is reality, not aspiration.

LatCrit 2015 will launch a multi-year intervention into constitutional law’s potential utility to outgroups as a means to go beyond resisting subordination and to strategically organize critical sociolegal scholars’ work in conjunction with contemporary social justice movements. The conference will interrogate generational transitions within our activist-scholar community and center the question of engendering emerging voices and ethical leadership. LatCrit 2015’s substantive programming will focus on, but not be limited to, the U.S. Constitution’s provisions affecting political advocacy and participation, criminal proceedings, individual rights, and due process guarantees. Paper proposals on other topics related to subordination and resistance are also welcome. Special emphasis will be given to supporting the voices of emerging scholar-activists whose insight and commitment can animate LatCrit into the coming decades.